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Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip have fired an anti-tank missile at a bus of Israeli school children. Israeli officials have issued a stern warning to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to act before it is too late.A public opinion poll indicates the Israeli public is less enthusiastic about Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's leadership and his plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and 4 West Bank settlements now planned around mid-August. On the other hand, the poll by the Israeli daily Maariv, shows that Israelis are more upbeat about their personal security. David Essing reports on these issues and what Sharon says quietly about Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, the Sharansky resignation and Israel's security border with Egypt.

According to reports published in the British journal "Financial Times" Ukraine has admitted that it exported 12 long range cruise missiles to Iran and six to China in 2001; the missiles were reportedly sold without their nuclear warheads. Ukraine's prosecutor-general told reporters that the Russian businessmen suspected of masterminding the sale, was arrested last July in Prague in response to a Ukrainian warrant. If the new missiles become operational, Iran will be in striking distance of all Middle East states as well as most countries in Europe.

Just how sincere are the latest declarations by Syrian officials to withdraw their troops in Lebanon to the Be’ka Valley? Why has Syria, after collaborating with guerilla attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq, now further defied America by forming an alliance with Iran and in effect joining the ‘Axis of Evil’ of President George W. Bush? After supplying nuclear aid to Iran, Russia is now selling sophisticated weapons to Syria - is this simply to make a fast ruble or does President Vladamir Putin have something else in mind?

These are some of the remarks of Knesset Member Eliezer 'Cheetah' Cohen, a retired IAF combat pilot who served with the Air Force Commander who has been named new IDF Chief Of Staff. Colonel Cohen says Halutz was not only a crack fighter pilot who flew the Phantom and F-16, he is known in the IAF as a brilliant planner.

In this revealing interview with David Essing, Cohen also talks about how the IAF has become second to none in the air.

As reported by IsraCast on Feb 1st, Russia is going ahead with the sale of advanced SA-18 ground to air missiles to Syria. Speaking to the Foreign Press Association in Israel, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon reacted to this development and the assassination of Rafik Hariri, widely believed to have been engineered by Damascus. Israel has expressed concern that Syria will supply the missiles to Hizballah in south Lebanon, which attacks Israel from across the Lebanese border.

The Knesset has marked the sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp in 1945. One million two hundred thousand people were murdered in Auschwitz, most of them Jews. After members of the House, Holocaust survivors and foreign diplomats stood in a moment of silence, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon took the rostrum. Sharon charged the Allies knew the Nazis were exterminating the Jews of Europe but did not lift a finger to stop it. He accused the Allied powers of bombing targets near Auschwitz, but refusing to bomb the gas chambers or the railway that was transporting 10,000 Jews daily to their executions. Sharon declared that Israel has learned the lesson; she must depend only upon herself and will never give up its right to self-defense. Cabinet Minister Natan Sharansky warned ‘We are now in the same stage of anti-Semitism that preceded the Holocaust.

In the Gaza Strip, five IDF soldiers were killed and another six were injured, one critically, when Palestinian terrorists tunneled under an Israeli position and detonated more than a ton of explosives. The blast totally demolished the post which was manned by Israeli Muslim Bedouins who serve in the Desert Reconnaissance Battalion. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz held urgent consultations with the IDF Chief of Staff and Shabak Security Director and then ordered a series of localized retaliatory actions. For the first time since Arafat’s death, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has criticized the Palestinian leadership for not doing enough to halt the violence.At the same time, Analyst David Essing believes the latest tunnel attack will spur the IDF into finding a high-tech solution to the Palestinian use of tunneling as a tactic of warfare.

Explosive tunnels - a new and deadly tactic in Palestinian warfare against the IDF in the Gaza Strip.IDF military planners will now be forced to speed up a high-tech counter-measure to uncover tunnels packed by explosives which can be detonated under Israeli military positions or civilian sites.

Mahmoud Abbas, widely touted as Yasser Arafat’s successor, sparked machine gun fire when he paid a condolence call at the Arafat ‘mourning tent’ in Gaza. Two of bodyguards were shot dead, apparently as a warning to Abbas who is considered to be a moderate opposed to the Palestinian terrorism. Meanwhile, out in the Mediterranean, there was some excitement of another kind.

Muhmoud Abbas, widely touted as Yasser Arafat’s successor, sparked machine gun fire when he paid a condolence call at the Arafat ‘mourning tent’ in Gaza. Two of bodyguards were shot dead, apparently as a warning to Abbas who is considered to be a moderate opposed to the Palestinian terrorism. Meanwhile, out in the Mediterranean, there was some excitement of another kind.

The Negev town of Sderot is preparing to celebrate Simchat Torah, the ‘Rejoicing of the Torah’. Last week, Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip launched a salvo of Qassams into the town on the holiday of Succot, murdering small children and wounding many other civilians. Mayor Eli Moyal says his town has long been terrorized by the Palestinians who have fired some 400 rockets trying to kill and maim as many civilians as possible. David Essing has interviewed the Mayor of Sderot and analyzes the current situation in the midst of the IDF operation.

What do you call the random firing of 400 rockets at a defenseless town, 89 of which have hit every one of its neighborhoods? It is surely a blitz designed to terrorize the population. And what would be a ‘proportionate’ response?